Tractor to Acquire About 85 Stores

Tractor Supply Co. says it plans to acquire approximately 85 stores from cash-strapped former rival Quality Stores Inc. and reopen them as TSC stores.

The acquisition will leave Quality with only its Norton Shores headquarters and "possibly a few stores out West," said Calvin Massmun, Tractor's chief financial officer.

"We'll be making decisions on what stores will reopen after the disposition of the inventory in about 10 to 12 weeks," Massmun said. "We're still evaluating which stores will open and which will not."

The announcement, made Monday, completes the remarkable demise of what was just last year the nation's largest farm-store retailer.

Brothers Jack and George Hilt started Quality Farm & Fleet stores in 1962 with one outlet in Hudsonville, just southwest of Grand Rapids. The Hilts later moved their business about 30 miles to the northwest, to Norton Shores, and expanded the company until it had more than 100 stores in 1996.

In 1999, the company merged with Central Tractor Farm & Country of Iowa to form Quality Stores Inc., which had 360 stores in 30 states.

But within months, it became apparent that the merger was not going well. There were complaints of inventory problems and suggestions that executives of the two companies were not working well together.

Then came massive layoffs as debt soared and sales sagged. The number of workers, which in May 2000 had reached 9,000, dipped to 3,200 during 2001.

On Nov. 1, Quality _ which also operates Quality Farm & Country, County Post and Central Tractor Farm & Country stores _ announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As part of the restructuring, 133 more stores were closed, leaving open 178, most of which are east of the Mississippi River.

Tractor plans to open the stores it will acquire from Quality by summer and liquidate the inventory of the remaining stores, Tractor's chief executive Joe Scarlett said in a news release this week.

The Nashville, Tenn.-based company expects to open a total of more than 100 stores this year. Tractor is likely to hire some of Quality's store employees, Scarlett said.

Excluding the Quality stores it will acquire, Tractor operates 323 stores in 28 states. It will supplant Quality as the nation's largest farm-store chain.